Monday, March 4, 2013

As many of you know by now, I deal with anxiety. I've talked about it on here before and mentioned it in my last post as one of the reasons I took a hiatus from my blog. It is something I've had all of my life and will probably deal with for the rest of my life. I mention this because of the response I've gotten from readers after talking about my anxiety disorder. I've been quite surprised with how many have written saying that they too deal with anxiety and know what I'm going through. Some have even asked for me to talk more about it. For years I kept it a secret outside of my immediate family. I was embarrassed of what people would say or how they would react. It terrified me to talk about it on here, to admit to so many people that my life was not at all what I had made it seem like it was on my blog. I thought people would think I was crazy, or not want to hear about my personal issues, but just the opposite happened. People wrote me describing their own experiences with anxiety, offering reassuring words and suggestions of things that helped them work through it and might help me as well. For the first time I felt like I wasn't alone.

I know that I'm still not alone. So many people still struggle with anxiety--whether the debilitating panic attacks, or overcoming the stigma that comes with going to therapy, or the hopeless feeling of not knowing if you're ever going to get better. I can relate to all of these things. And because of that, I want to offer what I can from my own experience. Things that hopefully may help you with yours. And while I am by no means out of the woods of anxiety, I have learned ways to better cope with it, and in doing so can offer what helps me.